


My Baby Left a Mark on Me

by glitterfics



Category: Blade (Movie Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bonding, Community: smallfandomfest, M/M, Soul Bond, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 08:16:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4172550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal's had a lifetime to get used to the fact that he had no soul mate mark and therefore no soul mate out there. So he's allowed to freak out a little when his mark suddenly appears out of nowhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Baby Left a Mark on Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for smallfandomfest from the prompt: Soulmate Marks.  
> Loads of hugs and kisses to my beta lazydazyfics for a quick and dirty beta despite just starting a new job; she's such a star.  
> This is the first fic I've written in about 18 months and I'm not really sure how I really feel about the story (Hannibal is less of a smart arse than I'd normally write) but I'm over the moon that I've actually managed to finish it. Maybe this will be the start of me doing more writing again :)

If Hannibal was honest with himself, he'd been feeling off kilter for a couple of weeks now. His mind wasn't in the game and it was beginning to affect his performance in the field. Scratch that, it wasn't just _beginning_ to affect it; he was in full blown performance anxiety. Mission-wise, anyway. 

Hannibal wasn't simply being arrogant when he claimed to be the best hunter in the Nightstalkers. He really was the best. You combine skills learned in the military with natural athleticism and add a dash of slightly enhanced reflexes left over from the time he was a vampire and you were left with a pretty lethal concoction. So the fact that the first impression he gave to Blade, the legitimate best hunter in the whole damned world, was almost getting choked out by Danica's own personal Hulk? That was pretty embarrassing. Then to make things worse, the very next day he'd almost let one of the familiars they'd tracked down slip away because he wasn't paying enough attention. He couldn't really blame Abby for benching him while she and Blade continued to try and get the answers they needed. Hannibal was turning into a big liability. 

He stomped back into the Hideout, waved off Dex and Hedges' questions about why he was back so soon and headed straight to his room. Once there he threw his jacket across the room in anger and began cursing at the top of his voice while punching the shit out of his locker until his throat was sore and his knuckles were bleeding. 

"Hannibal?" Zoe's voice came from the corridor outside. "Are you okay?"

Hannibal swallowed another curse, god only knew how many she'd heard from him already in the past half hour, and pasted a smile on his face before opening his door. "I'm fine, munchkin."

Zoe's eyes darted down to his damaged hands before she gave him an unimpressed look. Hannibal had to chuckle; she was a smart kid, just like her mom.

"Okay, maybe not _fine_ ," he amended. "I've just had a bit of a bad day but I'll be back to my old self later."

"When mom has a bad day, she makes herself feel better by singing Disney songs," Zoe told him. "You should do that."

"Alright, what one do you think I should sing?" Hannibal asked before pointing a finger at her. "Do not say Frozen."

Zoe hummed and tilted her head in thought before finally proclaiming, "Something from The Jungle Book, one of the happy songs."

With that she skipped away, apparently pleased with a job well done. Hannibal smiled after her but all the good humour the kid had restored faded again when he closed the door. With a sigh, he went to the sink to clean and tape the cuts on his hands, refusing to look at himself in the mirror until he was done. Only then did he raise his gaze to his reflection, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and how his skin seemed paler than normal. Finally he stripped off his t-shirt and looked at the source of his recent distraction, an odd little grouping of lines and triangles that had appeared on his collarbone a week earlier.

_Soul mate marks_. As far as Hannibal was concerned they shouldn’t exist outside of the pages of a trashy romance novel. The idea that everyone had an ideal, fated partner out there with the exact same mark as them was always going to be asking for trouble. Sure, there were couples such as Abby and Dex who the whole system had worked for but, let's face it, if finding your other half really was the first step to a perfect life then Abby and Dex wouldn't be Nightstalkers.

If ever Hannibal voiced his opinion on Marks, he always got the same reaction; that it was just sour grapes because his own Mark had never appeared. And maybe they were partly right. He remembered being in school and all of his friends getting their Marks one by one and how his excitement and anticipation had gradually turned into bitter disappointment when his skin remained blemish free. That only meant one thing; his mate had died before they'd even reached high school age. 

As things turned out, maybe his Mark not appearing had actually been a good thing. In his time as a vampire, one of Danica's favourite pastimes had been refusing to let a recently sired vampire drink any blood until the thirst reached fever pitch then she would lock them in a room with their still human mate until their new vampire instinct to feed took over. Danica claimed that it made her childer loyal to only her while at the same time cementing the power she held over them. It was first time in his life that Hannibal had been glad that he had no mate.

But now he apparently did and that made zero sense. 

He stared at the Mark, hoping to see something that he'd missed every time he'd done the exact same thing over the past week. He'd heard of Marks disappearing; everyone knew that was a sign of your Mate dying before you found each other. But Hannibal had never heard of a Mark just appearing out of nowhere on anyone over the age of twenty and you better believe that he'd been researching that ever since his Mark had appeared. 

So what did it mean? Was it some kind of trick? Some kind of curse? Was he mated to a newborn? [That was even creepier than the werewolf kid in Twilight 'imprinting' on a baby. At least the werewolf kid was a _kid_ ; Hannibal was a grown ass man. Even if the very idea of it didn't make his skin crawl, there were laws against that kind of thing.] All he knew was that these questions were driving him crazy, circling in his mind constantly and it was throwing him off his game.

Maybe if he had someone to share his concerns with it wouldn’t be quite so bad, if only because he’d have someone to help him with the research he’d been secretly doing after Hedges crashed for the night. But he didn’t have any friends or family outside of the Nightstalkers and this definitely wasn’t something that he wanted the hunters to know about until he had a better idea of what was going on. It had taken a long time for the hunters to trust him after he’d been given the cure and he still had to go through occasional check-ups to make sure he was still human. Any sort of weirdness with him would cause them to backslide in an instant and he really didn’t want to be thrown back into that nasty cell in the hold of the ship. No, Hannibal had to keep this to himself for now and instead find a way to stop it from distracting him while he was working.

The alarm buzzed once to signify that some Nightstalkers had returned to the ship. Hannibal pulled on a clean shirt and headed up to Hedges' lab as that was where everyone headed when they got back. Abby and Blade were already there and Blade was clearly unhappy about something.

"King, suit up. We need you back out with us," Abby said, ignoring Blade's growl of discontent.

Okay, so _that_ was what Blade was unhappy about. 

"We don't need him," Blade muttered but it was pretty resigned; obviously this was an argument he'd already had and lost.

Abby rolled her eyes and continued talking to Hannibal. "The TV shrink, Vance? He's next on the list of people to question and we all know that his building has a _lot_ of security. More than just two of us can handle and I'm not taking Dex in there while his leg is still bothering him."

Hannibal nodded and immediately started picking out some of Hedges' awesome weapons. That explained why Abby was willing to let Hannibal back into the field so soon after he'd fucked up. Dex had taken a stray bullet to the leg a month earlier and his recuperation had been a slow and painful one. Hannibal knew that Dex was chomping at the bit to be a real hunter again instead of a glorified chauffeur but he also knew that Abby wasn't going to let that happen until she was one hundred percent sure that her mate's injury was healed.

"You'd better not have fucked up your hands enough that you can't fight." Blade zeroed right in on the bandages on Hannibal's hands; he could probably smell the fresh blood which was a creepy thought for Hannibal to have.

Hannibal fastened his bulletproof vest and then flashed Blade a shiteating grin. "Blade, if my hands hurt too much to fight then they'd hurt too much to jack off and, trust me, I'd never fuck up my hands _that_ much."

"TMI, King," Hedges said in a singsong from behind his desk and Hannibal turned that grin on him instead.

"Don't worry, Hedges. I won't tell them that it's you I'm thinking of," he mocked whispered as he sent Hedges a wink and quickly walked out of the room before Hedges stopped spluttering enough to retort. 

On the drive to Vance's office, Abby filled Hannibal in on what he'd missed while he'd been back at the Hideout. He couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard about Blade hanging a familiar upside down from the roof of a building and he swore that he saw the corner of Blade's lips twitch but it was gone too quickly for Hannibal to be sure.

"I need your word that you're not going to zone out again while we do this." Abby fixed Hannibal with a hard look. "I don't know what the hell is going on with you lately but you need to leave it at the Hideout while we're working."

"You got it, boss," Hannibal replied and it might have sounded flippant but he meant it; he'd screwed up too much over the past few days. He was going to get his 'best hunter' crown back and he was going to start doing that immediately.

Abby studied his face then nodded when she found whatever she'd been looking for. Hannibal nodded back and with some effort pushed thoughts of his Mark to the backburner so that he could focus on the task in hand. That lasted right up until the three of them entered Vance's building.

Almost as soon as they crossed the threshold, Hannibal's Mark began to itch. By the time they'd knocked out a few guards and passed the security checks to access the staircase, Hannibal realised that it wasn't itching at all; it was the tingle everyone talked about; the one which signified that your mate was close by. His mate was here. The answer to this entire riddle was in the building somewhere and the fact that it was a building owned by one of the Talos familiars, that began to give credence to the idea that Danica was behind it somehow. Another mind fuck to add to all the others that sadistic harpy had put him through. 

He shook his head slightly to put his focus back on fighting his way through another handful of guards. It was tricky because he couldn't do anything to cause serious injury, they didn't know that they were working for a vampire's familiar; most of them probably didn't even know that vampires existed. Obviously, Blade wasn't showing any such consideration but at least he wasn't killing them. 

They finally reached Vance's office, brushing off the secretary's attempts to stop them where twenty or so security guards had failed. Hannibal had to admire her for trying and considering the tingling in his shoulder was getting stronger, he took extra care not to make eye contact with her; he couldn't afford to make the whole thing worse by identifying his soul mate right now. Instead he pushed ahead and kicked open the doors to the private office and in doing so, made direct eye contact with Vance.

Hannibal's heart stopped for a moment and then went into overdrive. His mind began screaming at him that he'd identified his mate. But that couldn't be true. Hannibal had met Vance before, while he'd been under the fang, without any of this hoopla. In fact he'd met Vance and the Chief of Police or, as he was also known, _Vance's bonded mate_.

Despite knowing that something was very wrong with this situation, Hannibal couldn't stop himself from walking closer to the person his senses told him was his mate, the person who looked just as affected by Hannibal's presence as Hannibal was by his. It was only when he rounded the desk that Hannibal spotted Vance, the real Vance, dead on the floor. His eyes snapped back up to meet that intense gaze that hadn't left him since he entered the room and even as he watched, Vance's face changed to reveal someone Hannibal had never seen before but who could only be Dracula. 

Hannibal knew that he had to warn Abby and Blade but it felt as though his vocal cords were frozen. Not that it really mattered, Dracula suddenly moved faster than the human eye could track and Hannibal found himself trapped with Dracula pressed along his back and his hand wrapped around Hannibal's throat. Abby yelled something and Dracula pulled Hannibal deeper into the room away from the hunters. 

He felt the vampire nuzzle his neck, sniffing at him before he whispered in an emotion-filled voice into Hannibal's ear, "My mate."

Hannibal tried to deny it but before he could get out more than a quiet "No", his world exploded in pain. Dracula roared, Abby screamed and Hannibal gasped for breath before everything went black.

When he woke, Hannibal was lying on a luxuriously soft bed in an unfamiliar room, facing a wall of windows. The room may have been unfamiliar but that skyline view wasn’t. He was back in the Talos house and the old fear kicked in.

“Calm yourself, my mate. You are free from further danger.”

Hannibal instinctively bolted up in the bed when that voice spoke from behind him but before he could move any further, his shoulder screamed in protest. 

“The hybrid, Blade, attacked you in the fool’s hope that he could injure me,” Dracula explained as he rounded the bed to stand where Hannibal could see him. “He will pay; I will make sure of that. However protecting you was my first priority so I brought you to a safe haven.”

“Safe? Right, I don’t know which bit is safer; being back in the seventh level of hell or being stuck in a room with Dracula,” Hannibal muttered, torn between backing away from the powerful vampire or moving closer to the man that every fibre of his being still insisted was his mate. 

At least how Hannibal got hurt made sense. Blade wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Hannibal if there was a single chance that the bullet would go through him and also hit Dracula. Hannibal was only surprised that he’d aimed for Hannibal’s shoulder instead of somewhere more vital.

“Since waking I have read the works of Stoker and I am not this Dracula of his; that particular legend is untrue. My name was Dagon, now it is Drake and I do not transform into a bat,” Dracula… _Drake_ said then frowned a little. “I do not understand your first reference though, my mate.”

“It means that I didn’t have fun the last time I was in Talos Towers,” Hannibal told him. “And stop calling me that, my name’s Hannibal. I don’t know how you’ve tricked me into thinking you’re my soul mate but I’m not buying it. Making the Mark appear on me was a nice touch but there is no way that my ideal partner would be the one thing I hate the most.”

Drake frowned and stepped closer. “It is no trick, Hannibal.” He pushed back the sleeve of his shirt to show Hannibal a weird little grouping of lines and triangles on the inside of his forearm. “I have had this since I was barely more than a child and I have hunted for the one with the same markings through many lifetimes. I came to believe that I would never find you so I slept and when I awoke, finally I could sense my mate. I came to this land for you."

Hannibal shook his head. "No, that's bullshit! You ‘came to this land’ to destroy it. We already know that Danica has some big plan and that she woke you up to help her carry it out."

"The Talos woman and her plans are insignificant. _You_ are why I am here," Drake insisted. He moved another few steps closer, obviously treating Hannibal as if he was a nervous horse who could bolt at any second. "You know that I speak the truth, Hannibal. You feel it also; you are my mate as I am yours. There is no magic in the world that could replicate that."

"But you're a vampire!" Hannibal's defenses were beginning to crumble. It was getting harder to concentrate on that voice telling him why he should be fighting the pull he felt to Drake when the rest of him wanted Drake to draw him into his arms and never let go.

Drake finally seemed satisfied that Hannibal wasn't going to run and sat on the bed beside him. 

"You judge me by these creatures that exist today. The ones trapped by the darkness and weakened by their own greed. I am nothing like them." He lifted his hand and gently stroked one finger down the side of Hannibal's face, causing Hannibal to shiver. "I will destroy them all if you wish it of me, my mate."

Hannibal's eyes slid shut and he started to shake. "I told you to stop calling me that," he said, his voice barely more than a whisper as Drake's touch, even as innocent as it was, set Hannibal's blood on fire.

The touch got less innocent when Drake's thumb grazed Hannibal's bottom lip. Before he was even fully aware of what he was doing, Hannibal's tongue darted out to taste. That illicited a deep groan from Drake which caused Hannibal to open his eyes again. Hannibal had been subject to more than a few passionate looks in his time but nothing compared to the expression of pure, naked _need_ on Drake's face at that moment. It was that expression that finally swayed Hannibal, he still had no idea if Drake was right about the fact soul mates couldn't be faked, but he did know that no one could pretend to be that affected by another person.

There was still one more thing Hannibal needed to know before he went through with this so Hannibal fought through the desire fogging his mind for a few more moments. "What will happen to me?"

Hannibal knew that the bonding would change him somehow because a poor breakable human couldn't possibly be the bonded mate of the Vampire King. He didn't want to be a vampire again but from the disapproval dripping from Drake’s voice when he’d talked about the modern day vamps, Hannibal didn't think that a vampire was any more likely to be Drake’s mate than a human would.

"You will still be you," Drake told him, by this time visibly beginning to tremble with the effort of holding back but obviously prepared to wait until Hannibal was ready. "But you will be more. Stronger, faster, immortal."

"Will I need to drink blood?" Hannibal asked.

"You will not need to kill." 

That was a yes but if he didn't have to actually drain people then Hannibal could live with that and it was with a sigh of relief that he finally let himself give in to the need to touch his mate. He'd barely let his fingers graze Drake's skin before he found himself flat on his back among the luxurious pillows with Drake kneeling over him. Obviously all restraint was gone once Hannibal had accepted what was happening between them. 

A small gasp of pain left Hannibal as the movement pulled on his injured shoulder despite the care Drake had taken.

"I must tend to your wound before we continue," Drake told him, his hands already removing the dressing which covered Hannibal's entire shoulder. 

Hannibal hissed as he looked down at the raw and jagged bullet hole, quite happy that he couldn't see the exit wound on the back of his shoulder because he knew that would look even worse. Drake took a brief moment to brush his fingers over Hannibal's mark, which the bullet had just barely missed and let out a low growl that promised bad things in Blade's future. Hannibal watched in fascination as one of Drake's hands began to change, the skin changed colour and hardened as if the hand had turned to stone and the fingers lengthened into sharp claws.

"You really aren't like anything we've faced before, are you?" This particular trick of Drake's managed to shock Hannibal far more than the shape shifting into a different person. Probably because when he shape shifted he still looked like a person but what Drake was doing now, showed that he really wasn't human.

"You speak as though I was still your enemy," Drake admonished, even as he used one of his claws to cut a deep gash into his still human looking hand. "I am like nothing you have ever fought alongside, my Hunter."

Drake held his bleeding hand above Hannibal's shoulder so that the blood dripped directly into the wound. Almost immediately the wound began to heal and the edges knitting together was possibly the weirdest sensation Hannibal had ever experienced. It felt like lots of tiny insects moving all the way through his shoulder and caused him to squirm against the bed. Luckily it didn't last long. In less than a minute the wound was entirely healed leaving only slightly pink, slightly too shiny skin to show there had ever been anything there at all.

"Well, that's a nifty trick," Hannibal said as he poked where the wound had been. 

Drake grabbed his hand to stop that and the skin contact caused the attraction, which had been simmering on a low heat while they had both been forced to concentrate on something more practical, to slam back into Hannibal. It obviously had the same effect on Drake because he suddenly ground out something that sounded like a curse in a language Hannibal didn't recognise before dragging Hannibal up into a kiss. 

It was like a dam had burst and all desire and need that they'd been holding back suddenly swept over Hannibal dragging him down until everything was just a blur of sensations. The slide of Drake's tongue against his own, the feel of Drake's hands against his skin, the dizzying thrill of being able to draw those moans and cries from Drake with his own hands and mouth. Hannibal had no idea when their clothes had been removed or where the fragrant oil Drake had generously coated his fingers with had appeared from but he couldn't care less, not when those fingers moved inside him and pushed Hannibal to heights of pleasure that he'd never known. 

Hannibal couldn't help but whimper in disappointment when the fingers were removed but they were quickly replaced by Drake pushing into him in one smooth movement until they were flush together. Hannibal bit his lip at the flash of pain which cut through the haze, Drake wasn't exactly small and it had been a while since Hannibal had been with another man, but Drake pulled him up to sit in his lap and the shift in position meant that Drake's steady thrusts were hitting Hannibal in all the right places. 

Just from the amount of words tumbling from Drake's mouth in that strange language and the fact that his eyes had begun to glow a warm amber, Hannibal knew that Drake was as close to the edge as Hannibal was so he wasn't surprised that Drake's hands tightened around Hannibal's waist and he threw his head back with a roar at the exact same moment that Hannibal tumbled over that edge with a cry of his own. He could feel the bond between him and Drake flare hotly and then snap into place before his mind was suddenly bombarded with thousands of images and sounds and emotions. 

He could see Drake's life, all of it. He knew that Drake was the result of a sacrifice his people had made with the Ancient Gods, knew that he was destined to lead his people to glory and that he had, many times over. He watched as Drake grew lonelier, searching for his mate wherever he went and attempting to fend off his crippling loneliness by creating his own personal guard of trusted daywalkers who could remain by his side past the usual human lifespan. Hannibal saw the moment Drake finally accepted that he would never find his mate and how the grief of that final acceptance had caused Drake to rage against the world, poisoning his loyalty to the mated humans he ruled and generally turning him into the monster that Hannibal had read about in Hedges' research. In the end, the constant anguish and fury had worn on Drake until all he wanted to do was sleep and never wake up. 

In a matter of seconds, Hannibal saw it all. 

Drake took Hannibal's face in his hands, his thumbs wiping away tears that Hannibal wasn't even aware that he'd shed. "My beautiful mate," he murmured. "I will not allow anyone to hurt you again."

Hannibal blinked and then gave a humourless chuckle. "I guess you got the technicolour flashback show too then?"

"Danica Talos will die screaming," Drake replied darkly in lieu of a 'yes' and that did make Hannibal smile.

"And I will make sure that you will never have to be alone again," he told Drake as he stroked his hand down the side of Drake's face. "But we need to finish this first." 

Drake nodded and they moved so that Hannibal was lying on the bed with Drake kneeling over him. Hannibal braced himself, hoping that this wasn't going to be as bad as the first time he went through it. The first part, where Drake bit Hannibal's neck and drank his fill, was relatively painless compared to Danica’s brutal tearing of Hannibal's throat. Drake then pulled back and using a clawed hand once again he made a cut on his own throat. He maneuvered the weakened Hannibal so that Hannibal's mouth was over the wound and Hannibal began to drink greedily, only stopping when his stomach began to cramp. Hannibal remembered this, it was his body fighting against the changes it was about to go through. The pain gradually spread out from his stomach until Hannibal felt like his insides were being eaten away by acid. His body arced off the bed and he screamed loud and long before he gratefully passed out for the second time that day.

It was dark when Hannibal woke this time and he somehow knew that an entire day had passed. He was still in the luxurious bed but this time Drake was wrapped around him instead of keeping his distance. Without moving from his very comfortable position, Hannibal took stock; the bond was still there, he could feel it humming happily between him and Drake. All the pain he'd felt before passing out was gone without even a single ache left behind. He could see everything in the room perfectly despite the fact that the lights were all off. He could hear all the activity happening within the mansion, including Danica's whining about Drake refusing to leave his room 'and whatever whore he'd brought back' in the past twenty four hours. So enhanced senses? Check. 

He also felt hungry but he wasn't sure if it was for the blood he could sense pulsing through the veins of the human familiars within the building or the hot dogs that he could smell being cooked on a cart a couple of streets away. 

"You know, I think that this might have been the roller disco wing the last time I was here," he mused as he looked around the room. "Danica was going through this whole seventies phase at the time. You think she looks stupid now? It's nothing compared to the flares. Oh god, the flares!"

"I have no idea what you just said to me," Drake replied after a moment, the sound of his voice rumbling against Hannibal's back in a very pleasant way. "It is as though everyone is speaking a foreign language despite the fact that I understand the individual words."

"That's because you're quite literally _ancient_. Don’t worry, old man, hang around with me for a while and you'll be hip to my jive in no time." Hannibal patted the arm wrapped around his waist. "Why doesn't Danica know that I'm here?"

Hannibal noticed that Drake tensed every time Hannibal mentioned Danica's name as if he was stopping himself from ripping out her spine right there and then. 

"Efforts have been taken to disguise your presence from her," Drake told him. "She believes that I have found a concubine to occupy my time."

Hannibal turned over to face his mate. "Ooh, you've found yourself some rebels in the Talos stronghold."

Drake chuckled. "It is always advantageous to have subjects loyal to you even among anothers' clan. It has benefitted us over the past day and allowed you to complete your change."

"And now we have the element of surprise, I like it," Hannibal said and laughed when Drake just looked smug. "So, my bad ass king, you've had a whole day to think it over; what's the plan after we've dealt with Danica?"

"After we have dealt with Danica and Blade," Drake corrected and Hannibal dropped his head onto Drake's shoulder with a groan.

"We can't kill Blade." He put up a hand to forestall Drake's protests. "Yes, he shot me. But he deliberately aimed for my shoulder, a place that wouldn't kill me. He's still a dick for shooting me at all, I'm not going to argue with that but he doesn't deserve to die for it. Besides it'll rile the hunters up and they'll come after us with everything they've got."

Hannibal was pretty certain that they were going to come after them anyway. Once they found out that Hannibal had been changed again, let alone the fact that he was bonded to the Vampire King, he would most likely be joining Drake on their most wanted list. 

Drake hummed in a non-committal fashion but at least he'd stopped insisting that he was going to kill Blade, which probably meant he was just going to maim him a little. Hopefully. 

"I am intrigued by the weapon the hunters' doctor is concocting," Drake said instead. "I saw in your memories that it will cause...a plague among the current vampires?"

"That's the plan." Hannibal frowned. "But it's also supposed to kill you so..."

"It will not kill me." Drake sounded very confident of that. "Neither will it kill you; we are not like these vampires. I believe that the doctor's work should be monitored; it may become useful to us."

Hannibal sat up, this conversation had taken a turn for the very serious and he didn't want to have it while still curled up under the covers. "Are you saying that you _want_ to release Daystar? You want to kill all the vamps?"

Drake moved to sit too and Hannibal tried not to stare at the way the sheet slipped down to reveal that sculpted body. "I want to take control. The vampires have proved themselves untrustworthy when it comes to ruling themselves. There needs to be a structure and rules set into place and to do that, the number of vampires needs to be greatly diminished. This Daystar may assist in that regard."

"Huh." Hannibal blinked at him. "So you really are going to be a proper king again? The vamps are going to hate that."

Drake smirked. "I do not care. I am their king; they will do as I command."

"I am finding this whole regal attitude incredibly hot right now but I do feel the need to emphasize that I am not going to be your queen." Hannibal grinned wickedly. "Even if I do look amazing in a pair of thigh high stockings."

It had been a throwaway joke but Hannibal laughed when Drake looked intrigued despite obviously not even knowing what stockings were. He was going to have a lot of fun teaching Drake new stuff in the bedroom. He briefly wondered if he could still find that Dracula vibrator he and Dex had laughed over in some Goth shop downtown.

"You will be my Hunter," Drake said, dragging Hannibal away from thoughts of a very kinky nature and back to the subject in hand. "You are my Mate and will be my right hand in everything that I do. You are my conscience and my anchor."

That was a lot of weight on Hannibal's shoulders because he knew it was true. In those flashbacks, he'd seen what Drake was capable of when he didn't have his mate to ground him and guide him. He was also going to have to act as a touchstone to the modern world; as quickly as Drake had already picked things up, there was some stuff that Hannibal knew Drake would never really understand. 

"I can do that," he agreed and was rewarded with a devastating smile from Drake. "Although if you keep smiling at me like that, it probably won't matter because we'll never leave our bedroom."

"Maybe that is a fate which should be given further consideration," Drake said, leaning closer to brush a kiss across Hannibal's lips.

Hannibal chuckled even as he deepened the kiss. He knew he should be keeping his mind on their discussion but Drake was already like an addiction. Before the kiss could develop into anything more however, he heard a loud crash and more screeching from the floor below as Danica completely lost her shit over the fact Drake ‘still hadn't left his room’. She would probably be storming towards the room to rouse him herself at any moment. 

"I think the honeymoon's over, Hot Stuff," Hannibal grumbled. "It's time to get your rule on and get this House in order."

Drake looked just as irritated as Hannibal felt as he watched Hannibal climb out of bed. "This House is going to serve as an example to others. I will punish the worst, remove those loyal to me and burn the rest."

Hannibal looked up from studying the pants he'd worn the day before, which were now shredded. "Do you think ‘those loyal to you’ can get me some new clothes? Someone, and I'm not naming names here, but _someone_ went a little feral on mine."

With an amused huff and absolutely no regard for his own nudity, Drake opened the bedroom door and quietly spoke to someone who was apparently keeping guard outside. Hannibal was going to blame the fact that he hadn't realised anyone was out there on his enhanced senses being so new. 

Ten minutes later, Drake and Hannibal left Drake's room. Hannibal wasn't sure where Serena, the vamp keeping guard over them, had scrounged his new clothes from but the leather pants were a great fit. The t-shirt was a little tight but beggars couldn't be choosers, besides he always looked good in red and black.

"About time!" Danica started yelling before they'd even entered the main meeting room. "I dug you up out of that hole in the ground so that you could _kill Blade_ not fuck every skank you find on the..."

She broke off as she finally noticed who had accompanied Drake into the room. 

“Hey, kitten. Did you miss me?” Hannibal grinned at the dumbfounded look on her face.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Danica to recover, screaming at the top of her lungs, “Hannibal King!”

As if that was some kind of signal, Jarko attacked, charging Hannibal from the other side of the room. Hannibal spun out of the way and blinked in surprise at how much faster his reflexes were, even faster than when he’d been a vampire. He really had to start believing Drake when he kept telling Hannibal he was ‘more’. Jarko turned and threw a punch which Hannibal easily dodged and then hit back with a punch of his own which sent Jarko flying across the room to crash into the wall. 

While Jarko picked himself up, Hannibal glanced at Drake. “This is pretty fun. You want to join in?”

Drake looked amused at Hannibal’s enthusiasm. “I would prefer to watch you fight although I believe that Serena might like to join you.”

“Your Hunter can have this one, my lord,” Serena said. “Although I’d be happy to fight Virago if you’d let me.”

A gorgeous female vamp who must have been Virago hissed at Serena. “Know your place, childe. You were nothing when I found you; you should be groveling at my feet.”

Hannibal chuckled when Drake first glared at Virago hard enough to make her take a step back and then told Serena, “Do to her what you will. You have my permission.”

A wild grin graced Serena’s face as she took off running towards the protesting Virago but Hannibal didn’t have time to watch Serena in action because Jarko chose that moment to charge at him again. This time, when Hannibal stepped to one side, he grabbed onto Jarko’s shoulder and used his momentum to swing himself up onto Jarko’s back. Then, allowing his instincts to lead him, he wrenched Jarko’s head to one side before sinking his teeth into Jarko’s neck and drinking deeply. When he’d finished, Hannibal hopped back down to the floor and let Jarko fall; he was ash before he even hit the ground.

There was a deafening silence in the room as everyone stared at Hannibal in shock, even Serena and Virago had stopped fighting.

“What the fuck?” Asher muttered with his eyes pinned to the pile of ash that had been Jarko.

Hannibal shot Drake a look. “You never mentioned that I could feed off vamps.”

“I wished it to be…a pleasant surprise, my Mate,” Drake replied with a smirk.

And it was. Hannibal was far more comfortable with feeding from vamps than from humans. He was a Hunter; he was going to be killing vampires for Drake’s plan anyway so he might as well satisfy his hunger at the same time. One type of hunger, anyway; he still had a bit of a craving for those hot dogs he’d smelled earlier…and maybe some ice cream.

“Mate?” Asher glanced between Drake and Hannibal. “Oh, fuck my life!”

“No!” Danica shrieked. “I’m your queen! I’m the queen of all the vampires! Hannibal King is a worthless dog who I should have killed years ag…”

The shrieking turned into a gurgle when Drake used all his speed to cross the room and lift Danica off the ground by her throat. 

“You are undeserving of being even my vassal. You were never going to be become my queen even before I discovered the treatment you have subjected my Mate to,” Drake growled at her. “I merely exploited your resources to learn what I could of this new world. I had always planned on killing you, harridan.”

Danica clawed at Drake’s hand and her legs kicked desperately. She didn’t need to breathe but being held like that was obviously painful. Danica’s eyes were wide with terror, either from what Drake was saying or from the expression of pure fury on his face as he continued to snarl at her. 

“I have now decided that simply killing you is not enough. You shall be made to suffer first.” Drake glanced back over his shoulder at Hannibal. “If that is amenable to my Hunter and Mate.”

As much as Hannibal would love to just have Drake rip Danica’s head off, he knew that wouldn’t be enough to make up for what she’d put him and so many others through. “It sounds good to me.”

Drake threw Danica against one of the chrome pillars, hard enough to knock her out. Then he turned his attention on the rest of the vampires gathered in the room. 

“I have witnessed enough of this world; it is time to begin my new reign.”

Two hours later, Hannibal stood on a nearby rooftop with Drake and the handful of vampires who were all that remained of the House of Talos. 

“When you mentioned burning this House, I didn’t think you meant literally,” he murmured as he stared at the inferno where the Talos Mansion had once stood. 

“This will prove to the other Houses that my word is steadfast and they will all be subject to our judgment,” Drake replied.

“In other words, you’re letting the rest of the vampire nation know that you mean business,” Hannibal interpreted and the vampire who he thought was named George, laughed before getting elbowed in the ribs by another who may be called Bubbles but probably wasn’t because that was a ridiculous name.

“That _we_ mean business, my Hunter.” Drake turned slightly to brush the back of his fingers against Hannibal’s cheek. “And the message is not only for the vampires.”

Hannibal frowned for a moment then he picked up on what Drake meant; a familiar smell of strawberry shampoo and so-called unscented body lotion that actually smelled like lilies. He turned around and spotted Abby crouched on another of the rooftops surrounding the Talos mansion, Dex just behind her. A look of shock appeared on Abby’s face as she finally recognized just who was standing next to Drake. She glanced at the fire, then back at Hannibal and he winked at her.

“It’s time to go,” he told the others, even as he kept smiling at Abby, and there was a groan of protest from Danica.

He stared down at where she was kneeling; her hands bound, the bottom half of her face covered in a mask to keep her quiet and a collar around her neck which was attached a chain that Serena was holding. The irony of this situation appealed to him because all the equipment Danica was bound with had belonged to her; bondage implements embedded with tiny flecks of silver which she had taken great pleasure in making her pets wear so that she could watch them squirm and cry out when the silver burned their skin. Hannibal knew from experience that it was worse when you were made to move because that caused the bindings to shift and burn new areas of skin, usually ones that had just healed and so were already a bit sensitive. 

“Oh, don’t worry, kitten. It won’t take long to reach our next port of call and then we can think up some new fun to have with you.” 

He patted her face and nodded at Serena to take her and catch up with the other four vamps who had already started moving.

He sent one last look and a salute at Abby and Dex, pleased that neither of them had tried to shoot him yet. Perhaps the fact that they’d both been witness to he and the others destroying the House of Talos would pave the way to them calling the Nightstalkers allies. He wouldn’t hold his breath but perhaps one day. Probably pretty far in the future. For now though, he had other things to worry about.

“Are you ready, My Hunter?” Drake held out a hand and the compassion on his face showed that he was aware Hannibal was saying goodbye to a large chunk of his life.

“Actually I am,” Hannibal told him, took hold of the proffered hand before they both jumped off the building. “Let’s go get your throne. Can we stop for hot dogs first, though? I've got a craving.”


End file.
